


holding on tight, sleeping at night

by meridies



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Family Dynamics, Fluff, Gen, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:47:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26753068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridies/pseuds/meridies
Summary: Tommy is certainly not afraid of storms. Luckily, neither are his two siblings.
Relationships: Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit & Phil Watson, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Comments: 52
Kudos: 1973





	holding on tight, sleeping at night

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this in two-ish hours while wildly sleep deprived. vaguely inspired by the first chapter of a wrinkle in time. enjoy!!

The first boom of thunder nearly rattled Tommy’s windowpane off.

He woke up from what had been a very pleasant dream. It had something to do with school from the day before and maybe something about a swimming pool and sunlight, but now that he was awake he couldn’t remember. Instead, Tommy poked his head out from under the blankets and saw a storm thrashing against the windows of his house, rain trickling down the rooftop in rivulets.

He rolled over, clapped one hand over his ear and pressed the other into the pillow, and tried to ignore the churning thunder that rolled steadily across the sky. 

Tommy, when given his choice of room when they first moved into this house, had chosen the loft, all the way up in the attic. This was good for two reasons. One, it had a triangular, sloped ceiling, which meant that Tommy could easily reach up and hang things from it, and it made the entire room feel much less empty and much more cozy. The second was that he could hear people coming up the stairs clear as day, and rarely anyone wanted to take the hike up to the loft just to see him (except Phil, but Phil’s job was to check in on Tommy, so Tommy couldn’t particularly fault him for it). As such, he had gotten the best room. The most privacy, the best decorations, and the joy of having the only room up on the top floor. He had bragged long and at length to Wilbur and Techno about this, for the two of them had gotten the adjoining rooms on the floor below. 

Now, however, Tommy somewhat regretted choosing the loft bedroom. The storm was raging outside, rain lashing against the windows so that everything was blurry when he looked outside, and Tommy could hear every patter of rain against the roof. In fact, with the next crash of thunder, his entire room seemed to shake. He was sure the storm was violent enough to be tearing shingles from the roof. 

Could storms really tear off roofs from houses? That had to be something just in movies and television shows, right?

Tommy curled up deeper under his blankets and tried desperately to fall back asleep but couldn’t. It was too noisy and too loud; there was no hope of getting back the dream he had been rudely woken from.

He slipped out from under the covers, pulled on a pair of thick, fluffy socks, and pulled a blanket from his bed to carry with him downstairs. He did his best to ignore the way his heart rate spiked whenever there was another clap of thunder or flash of bright white lightning. He counted the seconds in between each of those and found only a two second difference. They were practically in the center of the storm. Did they have hurricanes all the way up in Brighton? Surely they didn’t. 

Tommy wrapped the blanket more firmly around himself, crept around Wilbur and Techno’s doors (he was sure they were asleep, and he didn’t want them to be upset at him if he woke them up) and padded all the way down to the kitchen. 

To his surprise, there was already a light on, soft yellow in the darkness of the storm, and Tommy caught sight of Wilbur’s familiar sleepshirt from the back.

“What are you doing up?” Tommy said in surprise.

Wilbur turned and frowned. “What are _you_ doing up?”

“I asked you first,” Tommy defended.

“I’m just getting a midnight snack,” Wilbur said, somewhat evasively.

True to his point, the refrigerator door was wide open and there were many jam jars laid out on the counter. Tommy hopped up onto one of the counter seats, braced his arms on the counter, and looked at them.

“That’s an odd midnight snack.”

“I wasn’t sure what I wanted.”

“Well,” Tommy sighed, and slumped down, “Make me a peanut butter and jelly. I’m hungry too.”

“Whatever,” Wilbur huffed, but went over to the cabinet and retrieved a jar of peanut butter. “What kind of jam do you want?” 

“Grape.”

“We’re almost out of grape. I wanted to use grape.”

“Fine,” Tommy said. “I’ll take strawberry.”

“I’ll just give you grape,” Wilbur decided, and Tommy scowled.

“You’re so annoying.”

Another loud boom of thunder echoed across the sky, followed immediately by a lightning strike that lit up the entire kitchen, and both Wilbur and Tommy flinched. 

“Ha!” Tommy said triumphantly, catching sight of Wilbur’s reaction, and almost forgetting to be quiet. “You’re afraid of the storm.”

“No I’m not,” Wilbur muttered, and continued slathering an ungodly amount of peanut butter onto his and Tommy’s sandwiches. “It’s just loud, that’s all.”

“You jumped,” Tommy said.

“Did not.”

“Did too!”

“Well, so did you! I bet the storm woke you up too, up in that loft of yours.”

“To be fair, it’s a lot louder up there than it is down here.”

There was another flash of white. Tommy ducked his head down onto the counter and tucked his arms under the blanket. His hands were cold. He wished he had brought a sweatshirt of some sort down to the kitchen with him, because now that he was down here, he didn’t think he could go back up the two flights of stairs all the way to the loft, where the storm was raging wildly outside. Maybe the storm had already ripped the roof of the house clean off, and neither of them knew it yet because Tommy was downstairs. Maybe it was a good thing, then, that Tommy was downstairs, because he would have been blown away by the storm and where would Wilbur and Techno and Phil have been, then? 

“Here you go,” Wilbur said, and put a sandwich, neatly sliced into four even triangles just like Tommy did to his own sandwiches, in front of him. “We’ll have to put more grape jelly on the shopping list. We just finished the whole jar.” 

“Also pretzels,” Tommy added. “Write that down as well.” 

“You can tell Phil that you ate them all.”

“On second thought, maybe we don’t need more pretzels,” Tommy decided, and began eating his peanut butter and jelly. Wilbur always made them with too much peanut butter and too little jelly, so it was a very unbalanced sandwich. Tommy didn’t mind much. 

There was a noise from the hallway, and both Wilbur and Tommy peeked out the kitchen door. 

“Techno,” Wilbur said, and hopped back up on the kitchen counter. “You’re awake too.”

“You’re both awake,” Techno said, hair fluffed up on one side and creased lines from sleep pressed into his face. “I thought I would be the only one down here.”

Through a mouthful of peanut butter, Tommy said, “Did the storm wake you up too?”

“Finish chewing,” Techno said. “You sound like a heathen.” 

Fine, then. Tommy swallowed and asked, “Did the storm wake you up too?”

Techno paused, too long to be convincing. “No.”

“It’s okay,” Wilbur reassured. “Tommy’s terrified of storms too, I can make fun of you two together.”

“You got woken up too!” Tommy complained.

“It’s very loud,” Wilbur said. “How was I supposed to sleep through that?” 

“I think it’s going to rain so much that we’ll just be flooded away,” Techno said, and began poking through the cabinets in search of something to eat. Being awake at two in the morning always made one feel hungry, even if they had eaten dinner just a few hours ago. “Who ate all the pretzels?”

“No one,” Tommy said, and resumed eating his sandwich. 

“Tommy did,” Wilbur blurted.

Techno sighed. “Those were the honey roasted ones.”

“They’re my favorite!” 

“Mine too,” Techno grumbled, but closed the cabinet nevertheless. All three of them had quite forgotten to be quiet, even if it was the middle of the night. Techno retrieved a pot from under the stove and a jug of milk from the refrigerator and went about starting the stovetop. 

“What are you making?”

“Hot cocoa,” Techno said. “It always calms me down when it's storming like this.” 

“Make me some too,” Tommy said.

“Me three,” Wilbur added, and Techno sighed, but obligingly poured more than enough milk for all three of them into the pot. 

Then all three of them jumped, though Techno tried very well to hide it, at the next clap of thunder. It really was loud outside, loud enough that Tommy wanted to turn on the television so they could have a bit of noise to distract themselves. 

“It’s a good thing that it’s a weekend,” Wilbur offered. “At least we don’t have to be up early tomorrow.”

“I wish I was getting my sleep in,” Techno said. “I’ve been very tired lately.”

“It’s because you stay up all night,” Wilbur said. “I can hear you in the room next to me, you know.”

“I’m being quiet. You’re just being nosy.”

“I’ve been tired too, you know,” Tommy interrupted.

Techno raised an eyebrow and crossed over to the cabinet to retrieve a bag of sugar and a bar of thick dark chocolate. “You’re only in middle school. You don’t get to say that you’re tired.”

“Middle schoolers have homework too, you know,” Tommy muttered mutinously.

“Finish your sandwich,” Wilbur said, and returned his attention to Techno. “Besides, Tommy, you aren’t bothered by this idiot every single time he moves around. Honestly, it’s like living with an elephant sometimes. I never get any sleep.”

“I’ve been telling you, we should have moved somewhere with thicker walls.”

“I bet Phil’s real happy on the ground floor.”

“Yeah,” Tommy added. “Bet he can’t even hear the storm.” 

Then all three of them quieted, because they realized that they were talking quite loudly, even over the din outside. Even if Phil couldn’t hear the storm, he could certainly hear them. Techno looked to the pot on the stove, stirred it slightly so it wouldn’t form a skin, and began breaking the chocolate into chunks and adding it slowly. Tommy took his final few bites of his sandwich and pushed it away; it was too much peanut butter for him to stomach. Wilbur really was shit at making sandwiches. Maybe Tommy would have to give him a lesson sometime. 

“Do you guys think you’ll be able to fall back asleep?”

Tommy’s voice was quiet, but Wilbur shook his head, and then hesitantly, Techno shook his head either.

“Good,” Tommy said. “We should do something.”

“Like what?”

“We could watch a movie,” Tommy offered. “Or play a board game. I feel like we haven’t had a family game night in a long time.”

“We stopped doing family game night because they got too aggressive,” Wilbur said.

“Oh come on, Wil, that Monopoly game was bullshit and you know it.”

“It’s not my fault I’m a better entrepreneur than you.”

“You’re not supposed to be trading cards!” Techno said hotly. “I would have won if not for that stupid Boardwalk square, you and Tommy teamed up on me.”

Wilbur grinned and Tommy did too. That had been a fun night for their family, even if it had signaled an end to family game nights for the foreseeable future. 

“We could watch a movie, then,” Tommy offered. “It would be fun.”

“I doubt it,” Wilbur sighed, but acquiesced very quickly. “What did you have in mind?”

“Something nice,” Techno said. “I’m not in the mood for a horror movie.”

“But—”

“You’re already scared enough of the storm, Tommy,” Wilbur said. 

“Am not,” Tommy scowled. 

“Are too,” Wilbur said, and Tommy opened his mouth, ready to get into the _am not, are too_ war with Wilbur, like he had done many times before, when Techno interrupted them. 

“Done,” he announced, stirring the pot of hot cocoa. Tommy slid off the counter stool to retrieve three large mugs from the drying rack. Techno carefully ladled a splash of hot cocoa into each of them, steaming hot, and the three brothers each crowded around the dining table to drink it. Tommy took a cautious sip and nearly burned his tongue off, but it was quite good hot cocoa. The warmth spread through his body from his chest outwards, and he tugged the blanket back around his shoulders, for it had been slipping slightly. 

A long moment passed where none of the three said anything, and simply sat in silence, listening to the rain and hail and thunder outside, drinking their hot cocoa.

That was how Phil found them a second later, each huddled with their mugs at the table, and all three of them froze as he entered the kitchen.

“I thought I heard voices,” Phil said. “How long have all three of you been awake?”

“Ten minutes,” Tommy said, at the same time Wilbur said, “An hour,” and Techno said, “All night.”

“A long time,” Phil surmised, and pulled up a chair so that he could sit with them. All three of them scooted so that they were sitting evenly spaced around the table, huddled there while the storm raged outside. 

After a moment, Techno said, “Phil, would you like some hot cocoa?”

“Sure,” Phil said, and Techno pushed himself up from his chair to pour Phil a cup. Tommy took another sip and scooted closer to Phil. He wasn’t much of a cuddler, but the storm was really quite loud, and even though all the lights in the kitchen were on and everything was illuminated nicely, it was still a little worrying. 

“What’s the plan for tonight?” Phil asked. “We’re all awake now, and I don’t think any of us can get back to sleep.”

“Did the storm wake you up too?” Wilbur asked.

“No,” Phil admitted, “You three did.”

“Oh,” Tommy said. “Sorry about that.”

“You’re not sorry at all,” Techno mumbled. “You’re the loudest one here.”

Tommy kicked him under the table. Techno kicked him back. Then Wilbur started kicking, purely because the other two were, and they all got into a scuffle under the table while Phil tried not to laugh. 

“The storm woke Wilbur and Techno up,” Tommy proclaimed. “They’re very scared of it. I, meanwhile, was up on my own because I could hear them talking all the way up from the loft.”

“The storm must have been loud up there,” Phil said.

“I thought it would tear the roof off,” Tommy admitted. 

“That’s ridiculous,” Wilbur said. “A storm couldn’t tear the roof off.”

“Have you seen the Wizard of Oz?” Techno asked nonchalantly.

“Oh, shut up,” Tommy muttered, and tried not to think about a storm or tornado so powerful that it uprooted the entire house and took them all spiraling away. “Now’s not the time.”

He ducked his head and took another long drink of hot cocoa. His cup was beginning to cool down, so Tommy drained it and then gestured for Techno to go pour him some more. Techno sighed, but as he was closest to the stove, obligingly pushed himself up and went to go serve Tommy. 

“We were thinking of watching a movie,” Techno said, while he was up. “Phil, would you join us?”

“Depends on the movie.”

“Something nice,” Wilbur said. “Tommy wants us to watch a horror movie, though.”

“Tommy doesn’t know what he’s playing at,” Phil said, “He’s already scared enough from the storm.”

“Hey!”

“I’ll go see what’s on,” Wilbur said, and took his mug of hot cocoa towards the family room, disappearing down the hall and out of sight. Tommy saw the hallway flood with yellow light as Wilbur presumably turned the lights on as he passed them. 

“Aren’t most horror movies rated R anyway?” Techno asked. “Have you been letting Tommy watch R rated movies, Phil?”

“No,” Phil said. Tommy did not say a word. He and his best friend had snuck into an R rated movie in the theater just the other week right under Phil’s nose. “Not until he’s in high school.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Tommy complained. “All my other friends can watch R rated movies.”

“It’s a rite of passage,” Techno said. “Phil didn’t let me watch R rated movies until I was in high school too. You don’t get any little sibling privilege here.”

“It’s not little sibling privilege,” Tommy argued. “I’m just more adult and mature than both you and Wilbur were when you were my age.” 

“Oh, shut up,” Techno said. “I’m going to go see what Wilbur is doing.”

He turned the flame off underneath the hot cocoa, pulled the sleeves of his hoodie back down over his fingers, and turned down the hallway. That left Tommy and Phil sitting there by the dining table, each with a mug of hot cocoa clasped between their fingers. 

“They’re so annoying,” Tommy said. “All they do is make fun of me.”

“They’re just stressed out and tired,” Phil said soothingly. “Especially Techno.”

“I know,” Tommy sighed. “But I’m tired too. Don’t tell them, but I really don’t like storms, Phil.” 

“Yeah,” Phil said, and Tommy saw him smile, “I’m well aware.” 

“Don’t tell them,” Tommy said. “Promise?”

“Promise,” Phil said, and Tommy linked pinkies with him. He wasn’t exactly worried about it, but as much as Tommy might like to deny it, he really looked up to his older siblings even when they teased him about pointless things, and he wanted them to be impressed with him. It wasn’t particularly impressive to be afraid of storms.

“Can I tell you something?” Phil said. Tommy nodded. Phil continued, “I think they’re just afraid of storms as you are.”

“Hm.” Tommy considered that for a moment, realized it was true, and then realized it provided him with excellent content to tease Techno and Wilbur about whenever they brought up his own fear of storms. “I think so too.” 

For a moment the only sound was the sound of rain, which slowly changed into the skittering of hail; Tommy looked outside for a moment to see the sky, still dark, and hail the side of pebbles bouncing off the window and its sills. 

“Let’s go see what they’re doing,” Phil said, and pulled Tommy up from his seat, “We need to make sure they’re not completely tearing the place apart.” 

“Plus I need to veto their movie choices,” Tommy said, and hurried to catch up with him. “I get double veto power since I’m the youngest.”

“That’s not how it works,” Phil said, but Tommy had already rushed in front of him into the family room. Wilbur and Techno had claimed their respective seats, Wilbur huddled in a beanbag with his beanie pulled low over his ears, and Techno in their armchair that was technically bought for Phil but had become Techno’s hangout since he was there so often. 

“There’s nothing on,” Wilbur said. The television was tuned into a channel that was just grey static. “It’s too late for any shows.”

“Do you want to look through the DVD cabinet?” 

“I can,” Techno said, and crossed over to the cabinet. He pulled out DVDs and VHS tapes at random until most of them were sprawled across the floor. Tommy bounced down to the carpet to join them as they discarded movies they weren’t in the mood to watch and argued about which ones they were. Eventually Phil stepped in and made each of them pick two of their favorites, and they would vote on them from there.

“This isn’t fair,” Tommy said defiantly, after each of his top two choices were voted out instantly by Wilbur and Techno. “Phil, tell them they can’t do that. They’re teaming up on me.”

“Everyone has one veto, that’s the rules.” 

“It’s because we hate your movie choice,” Techno said, monotone.

“You can’t use your veto power just to get rid of mine!” 

“There’s no rules to veto power,” Wilbur said instantly. “It’s not our fault if we veto both of yours.”

“Fine,” Tommy scowled. “Techno, I veto one of your movies.”

Techno looked between the two. “Which one?”

“I don’t care,” Tommy huffed, and curled up onto the sofa next to Phil’s side. “Both of my movies are out, anyway. You two can just argue among yourselves.” 

“Fine,” Techno said imperiously, and tossed one of the DVDs away. Tommy frowned and pulled his legs up so his toes were once again covered by the blanket. It only took a few minutes of quiet debating among his two older brothers before they came to an apparent conclusion. 

“Does the Princess Bride sound okay with everyone?” Techno said.

“I hate this movie,” Tommy declared.

“Perfect,” Wilbur said. “Press play.”

“It’s a romance movie,” Tommy complained, “I hate romantic movies. They’re always so boring.”

“You’ve seen this movie before,” Phil said. “This is the one with the sword fights and the man in black.”

Tommy tried to recall whether he had seen this movie before or not. “I don’t care. I don’t like romance movies. It’s called the _Princess Bride,_ for God’s sake. How is it _not_ a romance movie?”

“Wow,” Phil said, but his tone was light, “You’re going to be awful in the morning.”

“It’s a Sunday,” Tommy said. “I can sleep in.”

“All three of you are going to be awful in the morning,” Phil corrected. 

“Am not,” Wilbur said. He tossed the remote over to Techno, who sorted through the menu and then clicked _play._

Thunder rumbled across the sky. Tommy jumped slightly, heart rate spiking in pace, and he pulled the blanket up to his ears. Phil’s arm came to rest around him, rubbing smooth, slow circles into his shoulder. 

“I’m not scared,” Tommy said defensively, because he needed everyone to know. “It’s just loud.”

“Alright,” Phil said. “You’re not scared.”

“I’m not scared either,” Techno called, hoodie pulled up around his ears. To his left, curled into the beanbag, Wilbur agreed with him. There. All three of them were firmly not afraid of the storm. That was that.

Phil didn’t say anything except for: “Do we want the lights on or off?”

“On,” Wilbur said instantly, and both Tommy and Techno nodded along with him. “Not that it really matters. I’m fine with them off, really.” 

“Keep them on,” Techno said. 

The lights stayed on, enough to brighten the darkness of the outside. Tommy felt himself getting closer and closer to the verge of sleep as the movie started, as the opening credits rolled across the screen. It really was quite a boring movie. And it was definitely a romance movie, too. Tommy hated romantic movies. Techno was such a sap sometimes, it was ridiculous. Of course he would be the one to pick a movie called the _Princess Bride._

“This is a terrible movie,” Tommy muttered, but curled deeper into Phil’s side. “I hate it.”

But all four of them sat there for a long while after that, and Tommy had to admit that he was mildly interested in the scenes where there was sword fighting or dramatic escape sequences. There was one particularly good scene involving someone climbing all the way up a cliff by themselves. It was interesting enough that Tommy fought to keep his eyes open so he could keep watching. 

Wilbur yawned, long and wide, and rolled over in the beanbag so he was more comfortable. Tommy could see his eyelids drooping from where he was, all the way on the other side of the room. 

“You can go to sleep, you know,” Phil whispered to him.

“‘m not tired,” Tommy said, very tiredly.

“It’s almost three in the morning,” Phil responded. 

“No,” Tommy said droopily, “I’m an adult. I can stay up just as late as everyone else can.”

“Techno’s already asleep,” Phil said quietly, pointing to where Techno was fast asleep in his armchair, “And Wilbur’s nearly asleep too. Why not go to sleep as well?”

“They’re not asleep,” Tommy mumbled. “I’m staying awake.”

“You know, adults are supposed to get eight hours of sleep a night,” Phil said. “Real adults go to sleep on time.”

Tommy eyed him suspiciously. “That’s not true.”

“How would you know?” Phil pointed out reasonably.

Tommy frowned. “I would because I’m an adult.”

“It’s okay to go to sleep,” Phil said. “The storm can’t get inside. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“I’m not afraid of the storm,” Tommy scowled. 

As if to disprove his point, the room lit up bright white. For a moment Tommy swore he could smell ozone, like the electricity was inside the house with him. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to focus on the soft sound of the movie in the background rather than the rain pelting outside.

Fine. His eyelids were dropping, he could already feel the faint haze of sleep tugging at his mind, and his belly was full of peanut butter jelly sandwiches and homemade hot cocoa. 

“Promise that you’re not gonna let the storm tear the roof off,” Tommy muttered.

Faintly, he heard Phil laugh. 

“Okay, Tommy,” Phil said. “I’ll make sure to keep you and everyone else safe.”

“Good,” Tommy mumbled. 

Before he knew it, he was asleep as well.

**Author's Note:**

> if you enjoyed please leave kudos or comments, i love to hear your thoughts!! <3


End file.
